NOTES TO MY FUTURE SELF
A proclamation of resolutions
Directed by Paul Trillo
Directed by Paul Trillo, NOTES TO MY FUTURE SELF envelops viewers in a series of intimate portraits and confessions - through a dreamlike terrain where reality meets aspiration. This visual composition is a rich blend of AI-enhanced landscapes and nuanced lighting, resonating with the universal human yearning for self-betterment and change.
As each cinematic vignette unfolds, this visual masterpiece becomes a contemplative exploration into the fine line between the world we live in and the endless potential that our future holds.
NOTES TO MY FUTURE SELF dives into personal resolutions and universal truths, inspiring viewers to reflect on their own lives and a shared hope for change. How did you select the individuals featured and foster a collaborative and open environment for their individual statements? What themes did you find most compelling to explore?
I cast the entire piece myself, primarily based just on headshots with no reel. I was looking for people who had distinct looks, people that you’d maybe see at the grocery store and wonder what they’re thinking or going through. I assigned the background environment to each actor and gave them two to three lines from the script. I worked with them to see which lines resonated the most, so it felt somewhat authentic. The idea is that these are the thoughts they have as they lay in bed at night, so they need to feel personal.
What inspired you to use video art and a series of portraits as your medium? How does this artistic format amplify the film's meaningful message whilst creating a meditative experience for the audience?
The piece was designed for the exhibit “Window To The Future” at the Telefonica Foundation in Madrid. The format was this ultra-widescreen large-scale projection roughly 8 feet high by 30 feet wide. Given that scale, the full-body portraits become almost life-size, creating a more personal, more vulnerable feeling. The wide-shot compositions create this negative space with minimal motion that allows you to focus on the people and their words.
You juxtapose raw human vulnerability with AI-generated dreamscapes, highlighting our enduring optimism. Can you give us an insight into the process of crafting these hyperreal environments using AI? What was it like working with this technology, and did any surprising outcomes arise?
The environments represent liminal spaces that exist between reality and one’s dreams. Each backdrop is generated by prompts that incorporate the spoken word along with a series of other descriptors. The idea was to have these worlds literally manifested by the people’s thoughts. Positive thinking and manifesting through making statements aloud how people create the reality they want to see. For many people, that’s the primary way they use AI – to manifest something in their head that they would have otherwise never been able to see. However, because I was compositing live-action footage into these fully synthetic worlds, it needed to ride that light between stylized and believable. The other challenge was to create high-production value backgrounds that could hold up when projected large scale. I used a series of new tools to do upscaling which increased the final resolution to 8k. I was then able to crop in on certain elements within a city, like leaves or water, and just process the motion of the cropped region to get the high-quality video from these AI video generators.
How did you collaborate with sound mixer Chris Claypool to achieve the film’s atmospheric soundscape? Can you share your approach to integrating sound in a way that supports the minimalist compositions and encourages contemplative thinking?
Chris was there to capture the production audio, but I did all the sound design myself because of the tight turnaround. Again, the focus was on the dialogue, but since the backgrounds were so large-scale, they needed some immersive sound design to make you believe them. That light touch of sound design and variation in reverb allows you to believe in the surreal visuals even more.
“We wanted the movement to tell the story as music does, so it is divided into two phases and changes as we transition from one location to another.”
The film seamlessly blurs the lines between the natural, synthetic, and supernatural. How did you achieve this visual interplay, and what challenges did you encounter in merging these elements?
The most exciting part of this process was generating the background assets before we shot the actors so we knew exactly how to light the actors by the time they stepped on set. Sometimes in VFX, the background environments are not locked yet, so the lighting on set looks somewhat non-specific. Having a post-production asset during production allowed us to more accurately light the subjects and also helped in compositing. I had about 10 days to turn around the edit with the final composite so this workflow was critical. I have a breakdown video that goes into more detail here.
Notes to My Future Self encourages viewers to reflect on their aspirations, serving as an introspective meditative space. How do you hope this project contributes to the broader conversation on self-improvement and the power of positive thinking?
When I screened this film as part of FLUX at the Hammer Museum, I did an interactive bit with the audience and had everyone state out loud what they hoped to accomplish tomorrow. Before everyone made their statements, I could sense some squirming, some hesitation in sharing these thoughts with strangers. However, through the cacophony of voices, you couldn’t make out any singular voice or word. What it did, though, was force people to consider their actions for tomorrow and create a sense of self-accountability. I believe by making these kinds of statements, the future becomes less abstract and more achievable.
Director, Writer, Editor & VFX: Paul Trillo
CAST
(In Order Of Appearance)
Trent Culkin
Luis Palma
Grace Balint
Rhoda Pell
Jorge Gustavo Ortiz
Steven Nwachukwu
Jowelle Christian
Rima Lyn
Andrew Lee
Benjamin Kmecheck
Sandra Deneen
Jb Andrade
Hokuto Konishi
Mingjie Zhai
Michael Sullivan
Tomm Looney
Maia Tamico
Conrad Hurtt
Megan Clancy
Maher Guizani
J Jesse Harley U-Myah Chaney
Joey Herman
Destiny Keller
CREW
Director Of Photography: Rob Witt
Production Coordinator: Sparkle Jones
Grip / Gaffer: Jay Gonzalez
Grip / Gaffer: Mahmoud "Khashi" Tahamtan
Camera Op: Evan Baher-Murphy
Sound Mixer: Chris Claypool
2nd Ac: Aiden Grace Wood
Pa / Coordinator: Lena Adams
Special Thanks To Artclass